Scammers hijacked the Twitter account of OpenAI CTO Mira Murati to promote a crypto scam. The account was found promoting a fake cryptocurrency airdrop claimed to be conducted by OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI tool, ChatGPT.
A phishing link to a scam airdrop of the purported OPENAI token was live on the account for about an hour before it was taken down. The verified Twitter account asked its over 126,000 followers to send ETH to a designated address in exchange for the non-existent OPENAI token.
Indeed, there is a crypto token known as OpenAI ERC, but it is a token linked to a free-to-use telegram bot that provides users access to ChatGTP and DALL-E via chat commands. It is not linked to OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT.
As expected, the tweet got significant traction, with almost 80,000 views and 83 retweets, while no one was allowed to comment. Blockchain security firm, Beosin told Cointelegraph that the hackers used a crypto wallet-draining kit that could drain non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and ERC-20 tokens from any wallet that authorizes it.
Fortunately, there was no evidence that any of her followers fell for the scam at the point of recovering the account, but it is hard to tell since no comments were allowed for any victim to warn others.
This is just one of many Twitter hack incidents this year in which hackers used the accounts of prominent people with large followings to promote their crypto scams. The governor of Madhya Pradesh, an Indian state, suffered a similar attack on his official Twitter account earlier this year, alongside other top public figures, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
It appears such attacks usually target communities of projects that are either popular or bullish. Most attacks initially targeted the Ripple community at the beginning of the year when XRP rallied to new levels, and now OpenAI since ChatGPT has become a household name.
To avoid being a victim, take your time to verify from reliable sources before engaging in any such offers, ideally published on official websites. Also, try to report suspicious offers like this one, as some accounts did on Twitter, which helped to get the attention of the account owner, who could have been the victim of a sim swap attack.
